Spartans drop two road games

BEATRICE, Neb. — The Southwestern women fell 61-39 at Southeast (Neb.) Community College Monday night, two nights after losing 71-51 in conference play at Ellsworth.

Going into Wednesday’s 5:30 p.m. cancer Pink Out game against Iowa Central, the Spartans are 5-20 overall and 2-10 in ICCAC Division II.

The Spartans are just a half game in front of 2-11 Iowa Lakes for the eighth and final spot for the regional tournament. Iowa Central presents a challenge Wednesday as the Tritons are ranked No. 13 in the nation at 21-4 overall, and in second place in the conference at 9-3 behind top-ranked North Iowa Area.

“Iowa Central is a good offensive team and they can hit their threes,” SWCC coach Addae Houston said. “They’re a quick team, a pretty tough matchup for us. Hopefully with the crowd there for the Pink Out game we can come out and play our best.”

“They came out and played us differently than in the past, a 1-3-1 zone rather than their usual man-to-man,” Houston said. “That threw us off for awhile. We were missing the moment when our players were open for shots. We had 16 first-half turnovers. We played much better in the second half.”

Darian Polson led Southwestern with 12 points and five rebounds Monday. Peyton Russell tallied 11 points and was 2-of-3 on 3-pointers.

It was an opposite situation Saturday at Ellsworth, as Southwestern trailed only 27-21 at halftime before giving up 44 points in the second half of a 71-51 loss.

“We just didn’t defend well,” Houston said. “We did a decent job in the first half, then on the other end in the second half we weren’t playing well. It didn’t help that we didn’t shoot the ball well.”